Warwick Police Log

Posted
Thursday, February 23, 2012 1:00 pm

The Police Log is a digest of reports filed by the Warwick Police.

MISSING FALLSOfficer Patrick McGaffigan reported the theft of a waterfall and a statue from a yard on Hewett Street on Feb. 18. The owner of the property told police he bought the home in December and was preparing it to be a summer home and that the waterfall and statue in the front and one of the concrete benches in the back went missing since he was last there on Feb. 5. He said the waterfall; statue and bench were worth a total of $1,050. He also said he would offer a $500 reward for the return of the items. No suspects or witnesses.

SHOPLIFTINGOfficer Julio Benros reported a shoplifting in progress at the Walmart on Post Road on Feb. 19. The suspect, in a black jacket, was fleeing the scene with a cell phone toward the McDonald’s next door. Benros said he saw a white vehicle leaving the parking lot just as dispatch reported the suspect was leaving in a white vehicle and pulled the car over. A Walmart employee subsequently identified the driver as the fleeing suspect and Wilfredo Gonzalez, 47, of 537 Douglas Ave. in Providence was arrested and charged with felony shoplifting because of a past conviction for shoplifting. Benros said he also learned that Gonzalez didn’t have and apparently never applied for a driver’s license and that he was on probation for the previous shoplifting conviction from November of 2011.

Officer Aaron Steere reported going to Macy’s in the Warwick Mall on Feb. 15 for a female shoplifting suspect being detained there. He said loss prevention at the store told him they saw the woman take 10 items into a fitting room and come out with only two items. Loss prevention said they checked the stall and did not find all the missing items. They told Steere her handbag was noticeably plumper that it was before she went into the fitting room and they followed her out of the store when she failed to produce the missing items at the cash register to be rung up. Loss prevention told Steere they recovered seven items from the handbag that were worth a total $230.36. Dina M. McCaffrey, 40, of 17 Brentwood Ave. was taken to headquarters where she was charged with shoplifting and later released with a summons for District Court.

DUI OR REFUSALOfficer Christian Vargas reported that he was dispatched to the area of the Hess station on Post Road around 10:25 p.m. on Feb. 17. An off-duty police officer had called in about a heavily damaged car heading north on Post. He told dispatch that he saw some debris near Balise Toyota that was probably from the damaged car and then proceeds to the Hess station where three separate people flagged him down. He said they were pointing to the parking lot of the Family Dollar store where a beige Toyota was stopped with its brake lights on, it engine running and its headlights out. He said the driver’s side front tire was completely gone and it looked as if the car had been traveling on its bare rim for a considerable amount of time. He said the woman driving appeared to be intoxicated and smelled of alcohol. He said the damage looked consistent with hitting a Jersey barrier. He said the woman claimed she only had two beers at her ex-husband’s house in Central Falls. He said a statement from the off-duty South Kingstown police officer that called the police described a disabled car proceeding north down Post Road erratically with no headlights on, dragging parts of its undercarriage until she finally pulled into the Family Dollar parking lot and he called the police. Vargas said the woman did not appear to know that the tire was shredded and she told him she pulled into the parking lot to call a friend to come and put some air in her tire. Vargas said he informed the woman that he suspected she was driving while intoxicated and asked her to take a field sobriety test. He said she agreed to take the test but he had to stop it when he thought she would fall down and hurt herself. He said Rosa M. Perez, 40, of 116 Emmett St. in Central Falls was taken to headquarters where she registered a .148 and a .146 blood alcohol content on the breath test. She was later released with a summons for District Court for drunk driving.

Sgt. Michael Lima reported he was on patrol around 1:20 a.m. on Feb. 10 when he saw a car heading west on Airport Road at a high rate of speed as it straddled the left and right lanes. He said he pulled the car over at Evergreen and approached the car. He said he knocked on the window several times but the driver just stared at him and did not roll down the window. He said he finally got her to open the window. He said she smelled of alcohol and appeared to be intoxicated but denied she had anything to drink and continued to deny it even after he told her he could smell it. He said he administered a field sobriety test and she failed it. He said a passing motorist stopped and told Lima he saw the same woman speeding and weaving on Warwick Avenue before the car was stopped. Melissa L. Benoit, 22, of 6 Greenhalgh Ave. in Cumberland was taken to headquarters where she refused a breath test. Benoit was charged with DUI, refusal and laned roadway violations and later released with a summons.

Officer Quentin Tavares reported he was on patrol around 3:15 a.m. on Feb. 12 when he saw a car driving down Greenwich Avenue with a flat front passenger side tire. He said they pulled the car over at 359 Greenwich and noticed that the tire was worn as if the car traveled on the rim for some time. He said the woman driving smelled of alcohol, had bloodshot eyes, slurred speech and vomit on her shirt. She told him she was going home from Federal Hill in Providence and only had one drink that night. He said the woman failed a field sobriety test, refused a preliminary breath test and was taken to headquarters, where she refused a breath test. Marissa P. Bernal, 19, of 15 Haddon Hill Rd. in Cranston was charged with DUI, refusal and traveling on the metal rims of her wheel. She was later released to her parents.